Fail once, try twice more.  Although NBC’s Constantine may be gone after a graceless one-season bow, DC Comics is continuing their partnership with the rainbow peacock in an attempt to solidify their domination of superheroes on network television.  They’ve already announced Lucifer, and today Deadline reported that NBC would be producing a new office comedy with DC called Powerless.

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Ben Queen, creator of the comedy A to Z and writer of Cars 2, will be the writer and executive producer of the new show, which is being branded as The Office, “but with superheroes.” Powerless will center around the day-to-day operations of “one of the worst insurance companies in America” as they deal with regular people who are affected by rampaging super-powered heroes and villains.  As of now, it is unknown exactly which heroes and villains we can expect to see appear on screen, although it’s relatively safe to assume that we won’t be seeing A-list Justice League members like Batman or Wonder Woman.

Powerless is an inspired move for a concept that has, over the last decade, become incredibly densely represented in American media.  There are plenty of superhero dramas on television and in theaters nowadays; the DC ones in particular are known for emphasizing grit and grime.  It’ll be nice to have a little bit of comedic light shed on their world.

 

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8 COMMENTS

  1. I think I liked the concept better when Marvel did it as a book called Damage Control. Based on the first two sentences I was already thinking great The Office with super powers and then I read that description under the picture. I guess we will see if viewers are into this or not.

  2. I didn’t realize Bendis has taken Powers out of the police precinct and to a DC insurance company.

  3. There was an awesome mini-series that Marvel did a few years back called “Powerless”. Michael Gaydos (Alias, The Black Mask) did some amazing art.

  7. So DC gets to drink Marvel’s milkshake.

    Marvel could have launched Damage Control after the first Avengers movie (a quick blurb at the end, perhaps on a newscast).
    Like Six Feet Under, each episode starts with a cameo-battle… say, Hydro-Man battling Frog-Man… causing some collateral damage.
    Damage Control then steps in, and that’s the A-Plot for the episode.
    Meanwhile, the B-Plot runs the entire season, Each character gets a little development through the season.
    Low production cost.

    Fans watch and post for the cameos.
    Marvel gets to test new characters for future episodes, comics, merchandising, movies…
    The general public gets to watch a superhero show which doesn’t involve a lot of background knowledge, and they get to sit with the “cool kids”.

    Instead, DC gets to do all that (if the pilot is picked up).
    DC is beating the crap out of Marvel on television.
    I think we see Marvel television mirroring Warner movies… they want to control everything, keep it all in-house, only on Disney channels.

  8. “DC is beating the crap out of Marvel on television.” – uh, you’ve seen Daredevil, right? Daredevil is like, bordering on actual art. Meanwhile, DC’s tv stuff is pure shlock. Granted, Marvel’s SHIELD-y stuff on TV is horrible, but Dardevil, man, Daredevil.

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